A House for Miss Pauline

'One of the Caribbean's finest writers . . . Her novels are building blocks of the current Caribbean canon and will be read for years to come.' Monique Roffey, author of THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH

'History's crimes unfurl in this magical story . . . McCaulay's immaculate, breathtaking writing carries it with poise and conviction. This novel is poetry' Lisa Allen-Agostini, author of THE BREAD THE DEVIL KNEAD

'Where has Diana McCaulay been all my reading life? . . . A profound and beautiful novel of encounters with the past and atonements in the present' Julia Alvarez, author of THE CEMETERY OF UNTOLD STORIES

When the stones of her home begin to rattle and call out to her in the quiet of the night, Pauline Sinclair knows she will not live to see her 100th birthday.

From educating herself through stolen books to becoming one of the most successful ganja farmers in the area and raising a family, Pauline has lived a life on her own terms in Mason Hall, a rural Jamaican village.

Yet these whispering walls promise to topple the foundations of her security and exhume Pauline's many buried secrets, including the mysterious disappearance of the man who came to claim the very land on which she built her home, stone by stone, from the ruins of a plantation.

Compelled to make peace before she dies, Pauline decides to leave the only home she has ever known on a final, desperate mission to uncover truths she could never have imagined . . .

Lyrical, funny, eerie and profound, A House for Miss Pauline tells a timely and nuanced tale, infused with the patois and natural beauty of Jamaica, which questions who owns the land on which our identities are forged.